


Purple Knights

by DKGwrites



Series: NoK - SuperCorp [8]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, CheckMate - Freeform, F/F, Fanfic, Fanfiction, Minor Character Death, Next of Kin Series, Pre-Supercorp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 00:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DKGwrites/pseuds/DKGwrites
Summary: The latest Checkmate emergency is all hands on deck bringing the black and white sides of the boards together.  Lena finds an old friend turned new ally, but teamwork might be asking too much of a group who's this politically divided.  Who will pay the price of that divide?





	Purple Knights

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a prequel to the first book in the Next of Kin series. If you haven't read that yet, please do not continue. This contains spoilers. If you've read NoK, well, here's the seventh of several short pieces of some backstory that I plan to post. I hope that it helps to flesh out some of the characters and fills in some questions for you all. The prequels should be read in this order: 'Queen Takes Pawn', 'Queen's Pawn to Queen Four', 'Kiss of Death', 'Swiss Gambit', 'Alligator Sp3rm', and 'Perchance to Dream'.

Dark clouds hung over central Connecticut as the Cessna 402 made quick progress toward its destination of Bridgeport. It had been a clear day when they took off from a small airport near MIT, and the promise of blue skies ahead had not been kept. It was as if the foreboding nature of the mission was further forecasted by nature itself.

Inside the craft, Lena Luthor sat with a furrowed brow as she read through her mission documents. She scratched a few notes in the margins before flipping the page. As a bit of turbulence jostled the small aircraft about, Lena grimaced and tightened her seatbelt another notch. Her outfit, a pair of jeans, sneakers, a t-shirt, and an MIT hoodie, stood in stark contrast to the serious nature of the mission. Only the silver pin, a chess pawn with the letter Q engraved into it and filled with white enamel, which adorned her hoodie spoke to the fact that she was a government agent and not just a college student… though an exceptional one even at that.

Tossing her document to the side, Lena released her seatbelt and made her way to the cockpit. As the entire plane seemed to drop dozens of feet before evening off again, Lena grabbed onto the back of the copilot’s seat and steadied herself.

“Dear God,” Lena muttered. “That’s a lot of turbulence.”

“Yeah, rough going as we’re lowering for descent. I hope you’re not scared to fly.”

Lena smiled hesitantly instead of replying. “What’s our ETA?”

“Sikorsky Memorial Airport is twenty-two—”

Again the plane jumped about, dropping and pitching as it tossed Lena forward and to the side where she landed, sprawled in the copilot’s lap. They stared at each other, wide-eyed until a muttered curse from the pilot got both of their attentions.

“Mitch, what’s wrong?”

“Some sort of soot.”

“Soot?” Lena turned toward the windshield where thick, inky flakes smacked against the glass, some of them sticking in place. She pulled herself out of the copilot’s lap and peered, once again, at the dark flecks with confusion. “What the hell is that? It looks like volcanic ash.”

“Maybe it is. A volcano on the east coast would certainly pull all of you from the woodwork,” the copilot said.

A small noise of dissent in the back of her throat, Lena glanced at the copilot before glaring at the windshield again. The grime continued to accumulate as pieces of soot, or whatever it was, clumped together. As Lena struggled to see through the remaining clear parts of the windshield, an expression of abject horror grew on her face. “Why are the propellers not turning? I know how planes work. For us to remain in the air, the propellers need to be turning. Why aren’t they turning?”

“Could be particulates in the exhaust, detonation from contaminants in the engine, or the air intake is clogged which is destroying or air/fuel mix,” the pilot replied. As Lena muttered a curse, he said, “I’m going to turn them off and try restarting them.”

“Now you sound like IT.”

There were several moments of frantic action from both pilot and copilot, followed by their communal cursing.

“Can you land it without propellers?” Lena asked.

“Fuck,” the pilot almost growled. “Too much damn… whatever this black crap is. Even if I could land her, I can’t see where I’m going.”

“We’re going to crash, aren’t we?”

The copilot shared a look with the pilot before he rose and pushed Lena back into the plane’s cabin. He rooted through a vertical cabinet where he pulled out two oversized backpacks and slapped one of them into her torso.

“I hope you’re up to date on your jumps.”

“My what?” Lena’s eyes widened as she watched the copilot pull on what was obviously a parachute. “You’ve got to be kidding.” However, his continued actions showed his words were as grave as the nature of their situation. He headed over to the door, preparing to open it mid-flight as Lena hurried to pull on her parachute and lock it into place as she’d watched the man do.

“Are you sure you can’t land the plane? I don’t really know how—”

“Wait ten seconds before pulling the cord.” He patted a metal handle attached to the left strap of her chute, just under the horizontal chest strap. “You ready?”

The man turned, not waiting for an answer while Lena shook her head, and popped open an emergency exit. He turned, raising a thumb to Lena.

Her heart racing and mind spinning, Lena held tightly to the edge of the door as she looked out and down to the vast nothingness visible through the inky rain. Over the roar of the wind, she turned to speak again when suddenly, the copilot was shrinking in her view. He stood with arms outstretched, a clear indicator that he had just pushed her out of the plane.

“Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod!” Lena spun in the air, managing to right herself so that her front was facing earthward. Even through her eyelids almost closed against the rushing wind, the quickly advancing ground was apparent. “One, two, three, slow down Luthor, four, five, six, ohmygod, seven, eight, nine, ten!” She slapped twice at her torso before connecting with the release handle and pulling it… and pulling it… and pulling it, yet the chute didn’t open, and she didn’t slow down. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” Lena peered down again, objects clearer, bigger, and more threatening below her. “Think, Lena, think. An object in freefall will accelerate at 9.8m/s² eventually reaching a terminal velocity of 53 m/s which means… I’m gonna die.”

Lena had just a few moments to get right with God when something struck her from above, and she spun briefly, entangled with this foreign object. She was further turned and found herself nearly face to face with the very man who had shoved her out of the plane in the first place. As she clung to him like a terrified koala bear to the last eucalyptus tree in existence, he wrapped one arm around her while sliding the other in the narrow gap between their bodies and pulled his ripcord. There was a sudden jerk as the chute deployed, and the lift made it seem that they were yanked up. Lena gripped even harder as she fought against this new force trying to slow her fall, her shoulders screaming in pain as her fingers tightened into an unrelenting death grip. The copilot wrapped both arms around her and pulled her up until her arms crossed his shoulders. He yelled something in her ear, perhaps to hold on, but it was lost in the roaring of the wind. It didn’t matter. The only way she could have gotten closer is if they were conjoined, and someone would have needed a crowbar and considerable force to make her let go.

The rest of the way down was rather boring compared to the initial fall. Perhaps Lena even would have enjoyed the view had she opened her eyes. Instead, she muttered quietly to herself, in several languages, as she held on tightly until they made a running landing and fell over. A gust of wind jerked them backward, dragging them along the ground until the copilot managed to get his hands between them and slipped off the chute.

They lay on the ground, hearts banging against their rib cages so hard it was difficult to know where one’s beat ended and another’s picked up. The last of the adrenaline was burning up in Lena’s system when the copilot said, “You can let go now. We’re on the ground.”

Lena didn’t immediately respond. It could have been the blood pounding in her ears that blocked out his voice or the fact that her muscles were locked up. Finally, he had to pry her free and help her to stand.

“You okay?”

“Is that a fucking joke?” Lena asked without looking up, her hands on her knees as she swayed slightly, unsteady on her feet. “I nearly died.”

“I told you to count to ten and pull your cord. What are you, some kind of thrill-seeker? You nearly ended up a pancake.”

“Does it look like I’m thrilled!?!” Lena pushed upright on trembling legs, her hands reaching out to grip the upper arms of the copilot for support as she leaned heavily into him. Her entire body shook in a fit of adrenaline withdrawal. “I did pull the bloody cord! It didn’t open!”

“Oh, well, that’s why you should always pack your own chute. Didn’t the emergency backup work?”

Head jerking up quickly as she glared at him, Lena spoke between gritted teeth. “What emergency backup?”

“How many jumps have you done?”

“Counting that one?” Lena raised her middle finger at the man before her legs gave out, and she slid down to her knees. She sat there, trying to control her breathing before the last few minutes’ events suddenly all came rushing back over her, and she heaved several times before emptying the contents of her stomach all over the man’s shoes.

“I ah,” he stepped back, shaking partially digested food off of his shoes, “see you had blueberries for breakfast.”

“I hate you,” she muttered.

“Okay, kid, let’s get going.” He grabbed her under the arms and hauled her to her feet. “We need to get to the road so our ride can pick us up.”

“We have a ride?”

“Yup, we radioed before ditching the plane. They’re tracking us, and I saw a road over that way as we were coming down.”

“You had your eyes open?”

He chuckled. “Be glad I did so we didn’t just crash into the ground. That’s a good way to break a leg. Come one. The road’s just over that rise.”

“I’m coming. I’m coming.” As they walked, Lena held out a hand and collected some of the black flecks falling from the sky as if they were snowflakes. She peered closely at a few individual pieces which ran from charcoal gray to black in coloration. As she rubbed a piece across her palm with a fingertip, she frowned. The individual pieces held their form, though they did stick together. “Is this metal?”

“Hmmm?”

Lena held her blackened palm out to the copilot. “If this were soot or ash, it would smudge when I wiped it onto my hand. Whatever this is, it’s holding its form. It feels solid, maybe like an incredibly light metal.”

“A piece of floating metal? I don’t think that’s possible.”

“We just came out of a flying chunk of metal… which didn’t keep flying, so that’s a bad example. Alright, the Archimedes Principle, are you familiar with that?” When he stared blankly, she said, “I’ll take that as a no. The Archimedes Principle is the physical law of buoyancy. It states that any body completely or partially submerged in a gas or liquid is acted upon by an upward force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body.”

“And that means metal can float on air?”

“Look, can an airplane carrier float in water?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it pushes down on water, and the water pushes back?”

“Close enough.”

“So metal can float in air?”

“No, at least none that I know on Earth. Plus, this is falling slowly not floating. Still…”

“Still what?”

“Still, I don’t know what this is, but I want to get it back to my lab.”

“You’ve got plenty of samples on your hoodie.”

The duo walked for a few more minutes until they reached a road and turned right, heading toward their destination. Except for their brief discussion about the black particles, they had been largely silent.

Finally, Lena broke the quiet. “Thank you.”

“Hmmm?”

“You saved my life. I’m sorry I… about your shoes. I’ll replace them. Just send me your brand, size, and an address, and I’ll have them shipped to you.”

“Nah, it’s cool. I’m sure they’ll clean.”

Lena looked at him, askance. “You have to let me thank you somehow. Do you fly commercial airliners?”

“Nah, mostly little prop planes like the Cessna that just crashed into the woods.”

“Oh, my God! Did—”

“Hey, Mitch is fine.” The copilot tapped at his ear. “He sent a message to the mobile control center, and then he jumped. He’s good.”

“Thank goodness.” Lena sighed in relief. “Do you own your own business?”

“Me? Nah. I’m saving up for a plane though, the Cessna TTx. It’s got the fastest maximum cruise speed of any single-engine piston at 235 knots. It’s the airborne equivalent of a high-performance luxury sedan.”

“Is that your dream plane?”

“My dream plane?” As he held a branch out of her way and let her pass, he said, “Nah, that would be the Beechcraft King Air 350i. It’s fuel-efficient, good for corporate travel and ferrying rich clans around, and is incredibly structurally sound. It’s one hell of a ride. Those cost $7.5 million. I’m about $7 million short on that one.”

“Ah, the Beechcraft.” Lena nodded. “That’s a nice plane.”

“Have you been on one?”

Despite the near-death experience, recent vomiting, and odd weather, Lena managed a small smile. “Yes, I have a… friend who has one. Rather she’s part of a business that has one. It’s corporately owned.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Like I said, they’re good corporate planes. Any chance that friend of yours’ company is looking for a pilot? I’ve got plenty of flight hours, and I don’t panic in an emergency.”

“I’ll uh,” she looked away, her smile reticent, “have to ask. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“I appreciate that. Let me know if they want my—” As a rise of dust from further down the road, the copilot cupped a hand over his eyes and squinted. “That looks like our ride. Let’s get you to work.”

As he waved down the SUV, Lena frowned down at the black particles in her hand again. “Yes, let’s.”

<><> 

It was a quick drive from where they were picked up to the camp set up along a busy street. They passed several empty buildings along the way, apparently evacuated under the guise of a gas leak or some other standard government fabrication. Though the whole area was barricaded by federal officers of one kind or another, they were quickly ushered through the roadblocks with nods and grim expressions.

A small tent city had been erected on the street in front of a local gymnasium but still a good distance away. Guards stood several feet back from the entrance of the gym, and the area surrounding the building was hazy as if seen through heated air. Near the guards, poles were set every few feet, tall silver rods marking off a perimeter likely of whatever was behind the literal national emergency.

People rushed past Lena, all with obviously urgent destinations and duties, and though she tried to get a few people’s attention, no one slowed down. She finally gave in and grabbed a young man who wasn’t quick enough to slip her grip, someone older and taller than her carrying a file folder in a guarded way as if it contained the nuclear codes.

“Can you tell me—”

“Back off.” He tugged his arm free and sneered as his gaze fell to the pin on her hoodie. “Go find your own kind.”

“Pawn!”

Both Lena and the young man flinched and then turned toward the raised voice. The woman who approached was a couple of inches shorter than Lena with long, thick brown hair and an average build. Her skin had a rich tan, the kind that looked natural and would only increase with some time in the sun. She had luscious lips that pouted out slightly as she apprised the duo.

As she stopped, the newcomer hitched one hip to the side, her hand resting along the full curve. She had a definite Spanish accent as she said, “Someone of higher rank asked you a question, pawn. Answer her.”

“But,” his gaze flashed to Lena’s pin for a moment, “we’re the same rank.”

“You are a knight’s pawn,” the woman said as she tapped at his gold pin with the engraved lower case k embossed with black. Then she gestured toward Lena’s pin. “A pawn of one of the royals outranks you. Do you need a refresher course in the hierarchy of Checkmate?”

“No, ma’am,” he mumbled.

“Good, now go about your business while I see to my boardmate’s needs.” Once the man had scurried away, she turned to Lena with a smile, her arms held wide, and encircled Lena in a loving hug.

“Bibianna.” Lena held the other woman for several moments before they stepped away from each other. “What are you doing here? This isn’t a United Nations issue, is it?”

“I wish this was a peacekeeping mission. Unfortunately, it’s not.” She tapped at the silver rook pin on her lapel, a white uppercase ‘K’ engraved into it. “I’m on company business.”

“Oh.” Lena looked left and right as people continued to rush by her. “Is your girlfriend here?”

“Not yet.” Bibianna slipped her arm through the crook of Lena’s and walked the pawn toward the largest tent covering easily the size of four others. “She should be here within half an hour, but we don’t have time to wait. We need to get you in there. Do you have your tools?”

“Unfortunately, I lost them when my plane exploded.”

“Exploded.”

Lena nodded, making a ‘boom’ noises as she held up both fists and opened them, fingers up, suddenly. 

“Are you alright?”

“Let’s not talk about it. I walked away. The way Luthors drink, that won’t be the last time I throw up. So, what can you tell me about the situation?”

“It’s grave, all hands on deck. With both sides of the board here, I am doing what I can to keep everyone working together. You’ll get your answers in here.”

Bibianna gently tugged Lena within the tent that was a temporary mission control. People tapped almost frantically on laptop keyboards while others rushed in and out again, handing off pieces of information and getting orders. Along one side, a familiar bearded figure stood against one tent wall flipping through sheets of paper.

“I have to work with _him_?”

“He is their king, Lena. Play nicely.” As they approached the man, Bibianna cleared her throat. “Your majesty, Miss Luthor is here.”

He looked up, smiling broadly. “Miss Luthor, your timing couldn’t be better. We have our best engineer inside, but I don’t think he’s up to your caliber. Be a good girl and give him a hand, won’t you?”

“Be a good girl? Look here, Max—”

As Lena surged forward, Bibianna pulled her back by the arm that was still held. “Lena, do not forget that we’re working together here. This can wait for later, no?”

“Yes,” Lena said begrudgingly. “I don’t want to walk into there blind. What do we know?”

Max signaled the ladies to follow him to one of the laptops. “There’s some kind of alien device inside. So far, what we know is it was able to punch a hole through the ceiling and deposit particles in the stratosphere.”

“Particles?” Lena brushed her hand along her hoodie, pulling it back coated with black residue.

“Exactly.”

“What is this, Max?”

“All we know is it isn’t Terran in origin. Initial test results show it isn’t toxic for humans, however…” He sighed, his gaze shifting between the two women.

“Out with it already.”

“Miss Luthor, don’t you enjoy foreplay?” A particularly uncharming smile curled the edges of his lips.

“No one has ever enjoyed foreplay with you, Max. Pretend I’m your prom date and give me the twenty-second version.”

Next to Lena, Babianna covered her mouth, and her smile, as she smothered a laugh with an obviously fake cough.

“The basement of the gymnasium is filled with tanks of this stuff. As near as we can tell, the initial jettison of particles was just a test run. There must be 1,000 times more of it in the basement, and their systems are set up to deposit it in the thermosphere.”

Brow creased, Lena was silent for several seconds. “How long before it falls?”

“We don’t think it will. It will spread across the atmosphere—”

“And create a second ice age,” Lena finished for him. “I need to get in there.”

“My thought exactly.”

“Stay out of the basement,” a woman said as she entered the tent. She was an average height, black woman in her late thirties, and blood-streaked her hands and clothing.

“What the hell happened to you?” Max asked.

“The basement is booby-trapped, that’s what happened. I’ve got three wounded that I need to get to the hospital.”

Max nodded. “Fine. Have your knight report to me. We still need medical staff in there.”

“Jake is one of the wounded. Is the White Queen here yet?”

“Dr… Dr. Grace-Colby? What are you doing here?”

“Same as you, Miss Luthor. I’m trying to save the planet. Good luck. Max, message me when we have an update. I’ll be at Yale New Haven Hospital with my patients.”

“If this thing goes off, saving them won’t matter, Patricia. The whole planet is fucked,” Max said.

She pointed at Lena. “Then she better get in there and save the damn planet.”

Dr. Grace Colby left, and Lena stood staring at the swaying tent flap, her gaze frozen in place as her mind raced to catch up to what she’d just seen.

“Are you okay, Lena?” Bibianna asked.

“She was one of my professors in my sophomore year. Why is she here?”

“Lena,” Bibianna gently squeezed Lena’s arm, “she’s the black queen.”

“What? No. She’s… what? Why was the black queen one of my professors?”

“She was scouting you for recruitment,” Max said in a rather matter-of-fact fashion.

“But… but… but…” After a few moments, Lena regained her composure enough to glare at Max. “I hate you.”

“I don’t care.” He pulled back the tent flap, holding it open as he gestured toward the exit. “Just go save the world, Miss Luthor. I’ll welcome your unveiled animosity once we’ve survived this latest apocalyptic event.”

Dismissed, Lena and Bibianna made their way to within twenty feet of the Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium building. Two black pawns stood at one of the metal poles that jutted out of the grass and leaned slightly toward the building. A series of matching poles were spaced out every ten feet and disappeared around the sides of the building. Coming up from and between the poles, a series of walls of light spread up on an angle and met over the top of the building, causing the rippling that was viewable from farther back. From every pole, a gentle hum of energy was emitted.

“A forcefield generator? Why are we surrounding the building with a forcefield?”

“Black King’s orders,” one of the pawns said as he swiped a badge along an electronic reader on one of the poles. The light pad on the side flashed green, and then light after light went out. It took around a minute before it was shut down. “Okay, ladies, you can go in. Good luck.”

After they passed the line of the forcefield, the pawn swiped his badge again. The hum began, but it wasn’t until they reached the front doors that the forcefield once again flashed into life.

“Do they really think that thing is going to stop a piece of advanced alien technology?” Lena asked.

“No one knows what to think. Our fingers are all crossed. Let’s get you to the device. Perhaps you will be able to tell us something the other engineer could not.”

Inside, another pawn, this one with a silver and white pin on their chest, greeted them and led them through the hallways. They passed locker rooms, some offices, a walk-in freezer, and a series of sports banners before they came to a set of double doors that led to a basketball full-court. People milled around, some reading reports or technical information from tablets. Two people knelt on the floor in front of what was obviously the alien device. Each held a flashlight while a third person knelt in front of an open panel with his back to Lena and Bibianna.

The device itself was dark and sleek. It stood about eight feet tall from floor to tip. The base was wide, probably ten feet around, and the top two feet were a shaft so narrow that you could have wrapped your hand around it. A low thrum of power, similar to the forcefield outside but deeper and foreboding, rode from the device, along the floor, and up into everyone there.

“That’s the device,” Bibianna said. “Have you ever seen anything like it before?”

“Nope,” the man kneeling in front of the open panel on the device said. “This is a new one for me. Are you the engineer for the white side?”

Lena jerked back suddenly like she was slapped, her skin paling beyond its normal shade of freshly fallen snow. “E… Everett?”

The man stood to his impressive full height, the protruding Adam’s Apple in his throat erratically bobbing up and down as he turned and stared. “Lena? Lena, what are you doing here? This a secure location.”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

“I… My king…”

Lena glanced down at the gold pawn’s pin with the black uppercase K engraving that he wore, and all of the color she’d lost and then some returned as shades of crimson covered her face. “Son of a bitch! Max Fucking Lord recruited you!?”

Bibianna spoke gently as she attempted to once again curb the younger woman’s temper. “Lena—”

“No! Everett, when did this happen?”

“Maybe a year and a half ago.” His gaze wandered briefly to Lena’s pin. “You’re the white queen’s pawn? When did that happen?”

“When your asshole of a boss failed to blackmail me into working for him.” Lena turned on Bibianna. “Did you know?”

“Of course, I did. But it wasn’t my place. I was under orders to say nothing. The queen has been trying to rectify this situation internally.”

“Anna?” Everett ran his fingers through his mop of curly hair, his gaze briefly wandered back to Lena before settling on Bibianna again. “Wow, my sister would freak out if she knew you were both here.”

“Your sister is the white queen,” Lena snapped back.

“Kalia?” At Lena’s nod, Everett squeezed his eyes shut and let out a moan that somehow managed to express both his distress and understanding at once. “That’s why you two kept running off together. Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Because it was illegal to tell you? Because we didn’t want you getting involved?”

“How did that work?” Everett replied.

“Children, children,” Bibianna said as she patted them both gently. “Perhaps you could save all of our lives and then fight about whose fault this is?”

“Max’s,” Lena said as Everett said, “Kalia’s.”

“You will both have to agree to disagree. Now, you two work on the device while I see what I can find out from the other lovely gentleman and ladies gathered here.”

“What do we know?” Lena asked as she knelt in front of the device.

“Don’t touch anything!”

She glanced up at Everett with a look of disdain. “You don’t think this is my first alien device, do you? Please. I was dealing with metas while you were struggling with your computational fluid dynamics course.”

“I got a B in that course!” Everett hissed.

Lena grinned up at him as she raised a single brow. “I got an A and stopped two metas that semester.”

“Shut up.” He knelt next to her and pointed to the internal workings easily viewed through the open panel door. “I don’t know entirely how this thing works, but that looks like a fluid power coupling. We were able to link up to it,” he reached back and took a tablet that was handed to him, “but the readouts are insane. Have you ever seen anything like it?”

“Hmmm.” She took the tablet and frowned as she scrolled through the data on the screen. “Not exactly like this but we did confiscate an alien laser rifle, and it had similar readouts. It also had an internal security system. Without the correct codes, tampering with it ended badly.”

“Where were you a half an hour ago when that would have been helpful? We had to find that out the hard way.”

Lena winced. “Was there a fatality?”

“No, but he had nasty burns on the right side of his body. They carted him off right away. The queen said we had access to advanced alien tech that could help him… something about jellyfish.”

Lena nodded. “Right, so we can’t bash our way through this. Have you tried to overpower it and burn it out?”

“I’ve been trying to locate the power source so we can do that or just turn this thing off. We had people in the basement, but that didn’t go over well either.”

“Yes, I saw Dr… the black queen. She mentioned the basement was off-limits. She also said there were several vats of this black stuff in there. How much are we talking about, exactly?”

“Here.” Everett took the tablet back, reduced the readout, and brought up another screen. On it was an image of a tank, and next to it was an image of a person’s outline. The tank was about three times the height of the person and four or five times as wide.

“Holy fuck. That’s not a tank. It’s a silo. One of those must hold—”

“There are over two dozen in the basement.”

“Two… dozen?” Lena’s brows rose high along her forehead. “We’re fucked.”

“Not if we can turn this thing off.” He waved over his shoulder, and another tablet was placed into his hand. “Want to do some science?”

Slowly, a grinned crawled over Lena’s face, the first hint of joy she’d shown since this little plane crashing, parachuting failing, world-ending extravaganza had begun. “Oh, Everett, I thought you’d never ask.”

For the next ten minutes, they work quietly next to each other while others milled about. From time to time, one of them would hold out their tablet. The other would look, grunt, nod, and they’d go back to their work. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Hmmm?” Lena turned away from her work, her inquisitive gaze jumped from his brow, to the swell of his cheek, down to his slightly parted lips, and finally rose and settled to meet his return gaze. “Sorry?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry I snapped at you when you came in. You just surprised me.”

“Oh, I understand that,” she replied with a throaty chuckle. “I dealt with a meta that could triple its mass and stood over twelve feet tall, still, that was nothing compared to the shock of seeing you in here. You’re supposed to be away from this and safe.”

“_You’re_ supposed to be away from this and safe. Protecting you and Kalia was half the reason I did this.”

“Half?”

He smiled sheepishly, ducking his head as he tapped at his tablet again. “I was jealous.”

“Jealous of whom, of what?”

“Of your and Kalia’s relationship,” he admitted and lifted his head to meet her gaze. “You two kept running off together to do things. She disappeared right after Thanksgiving dinner, and when I spoke to you that weekend, you said something about Kalia’s new haircut.”

“Fuck,” Lena grumbled. “I realized that I screwed up right after I said it. I was hoping you didn’t notice.”

“Oh, I noticed. I thought maybe Kalia was cheating on Anna with you.”

Lena’s jaw practically unhinged, and she mouthed silently at the air like a fish on land.

“Okay, seeing that look on your face makes this whole thing worth it.”

“You really thought that Kalia and I would… that we could…”

“No, I mean the thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t believe it. It was more about feeling replaced, like in you Kalia saw the little sibling she always wanted. It made me feel like a failure, like I wasn’t special. Then this came along and…”

“It made you feel special.”

“Yeah, it made me feel like someone wanted me around.”

“Everett, you know Kalia does, don’t you? Everything she does, running this whole side of the board, that isn’t for the country. That’s for you.”

“Yeah?” He grinned then, a faraway look in his eyes just before he rolled them. “I wish I had known that last year.”

“Me too. I feel like this is all my fault.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s still Kalia’s fault. I’m looking forward to putting the thumbscrews to her over this.”

“Well, first we’ll have to keep life on this planet as we know it from being destroyed.”

“Oh, we’re going to do that.” Everett grinned over at Lena. “There is no way the world is ending before I get my apology ice cream sundae. A man has to have his priorities.”

“You Campbells… always bloody optimists.”

“It’s part of what makes us so irresistible.”

With an elbow nudge and a shared smile, they settled into a much more comfortable silence. They busily worked away, both making small advances working with a familiar partner. It was a quiet but productive process, but all good things must come to an end.

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What uh-oh?” Lena asked. “What did you find out?”

“So, I’ve been running a program to try and figure out when this thing will go off again. I used the recorded time for the earlier expulsion, and wrote an algorithm that—”

“Everett, I’d love to hear all about your program, I really would, but no one starts with ‘Uh-oh’ and ends with good news. How much time do we have left?”

“If my program is right, eight minutes.”

Lena cursed quietly under her breath. “Okay, I have an idea. I’ve located the power systems and—”

“Can you turn this thing off?” Bibianna asked as she pushed her head between where theirs sat a double shoulder’s width apart.

Together, Lena and Everett turned partially around. Every assembled member of Checkmate there, eight people not counting Lena and Everett, had frozen in their work and was staring.

“Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do?” Everett asked.

“If you two can’t stop this thing, it’s an extinction-level event, so no,” Babianna replied. “So, can you turn it off?”

“No,” Lena said amid a chorus of groans and curses. She tapped on her screen, bringing up a diagram of the device. “I did, however, locate the power supply and—”

“We can’t touch that. It’s protected.” Everett tapped on the screen, zooming in on a particular section. “See that? It’s the security overlay.”

She slapped his hand away. “I know how to read a diagram. I don’t want to try anything on that. I want to shut off this.” She zoomed out and then zoomed in on a different section. “I want to divert the power from this. It may still work, or it may cause an overload and blow up the whole thing.”

“How big of an explosion?” Bibianna asked.

“Did they evacuate Bridgeport yet?” At the look of fear in Bibianna’s eyes, Lena nodded. “Well, it’s too late now. We don’t have much of a choice. It’s us or everyone.”

“Wait, if we can divert the power from the laser to the particle deployment system, maybe we could do the opposite and divert power from the deployment system to the laser.”

“Won’t that just punch a bigger hole in the roof or destroy the forcefield?”

Lena waved away Bibianna’s question and began typing fervently. “The laser is redundant at this point, and the forcefield won’t stop light. It’s the deployment system that’s going to end us all. Maybe…” A quick bit of math later, Lena looked up with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “This will likely still render the greater Bridgeport area unlivable for a lifetime, but it will save a lot of lives. Do you see what I see here?” She held up her tablet for Everett.

His brows creased momentarily before shooting upward. “Oh! Yeah! Let’s do that!”

“For those of those who do not have multiple engineering degrees, what’s going on?”

“We’re going to divert the power from the deployment system to the laser,” Lena explained, most of her concentration on the screen in front of her as she typed. “If we underpower the deployment system…” Lena’s words drifted off as her brows furrowed, her concentration deepening on her work.

“Will it keep more of these black things from ending up in the thermosphere, which I take it from the use of terms like ‘extinction-level event’ is bad.”

“If we’re lucky, it won’t even make it to the stratosphere,” Lena replied.

“Or leave this building,” Everett added.

“Right, so bad for everyone in this building but better for the world. Is there anything you need from us?”

“Your absence,” Lena replied. “This could still go horribly wrong and blow up in our faces… literally. At the very least, this building and everyone in it won’t survive.”

“That sounds like our cue to leave,” Bibianna said. “Alright, everyone who is not an engineer actively doing science, follow me.”

“Our king ordered us to stay with his pawn,” one of the black pawns said.

“And now I’m ordering you to leave,” Bibiana said. “Feel free to report me to your king if we all survive this.” There was some shuffling as Bibianna and those on the white side of the board gathered up a few things and began to leave, but the other side stood unwavering. “Now is not the time to debate politics.” There was still no give, and she raised a brow to Lena.

“Everett, you could just—”

“Two program faster than one.”

Lena nodded and glanced back over her shoulder. “Just go. I suppose we’ll have to work quickly and all survive.”

“You better, or my girlfriend will kill me.” With that, Bibianna left with her people in tow.

A few minutes of quiet tapping, quick glances at each other’s work, and grunts of communication later, Lena and Everett were mostly done with their project that would save the world… or not. There was no time to do any test runs, so they had one shot. Fail or succeed, next to no one would ever know of their efforts on behalf of the world’s population. It wasn’t the kind of job that went on most resumes.

“That will have to do it,” Everett said. “Are you ready to—” At motion from the entryway, his attention was drawn away from his work, and everyone else’s attention followed. “Anna, why are you back?”

“Our people are out, but there is no way I’m leaving without the rest of you. Tell me we are ready to go.”

“Kalia is going to lose it if—”

“Everett, just tell me we are going to live.”

“The odds are in our favor,” Lena said with a last keystroke, “but only if we get out of this building.”

“Then enough with the sightseeing of the alien artifact. I’m sure you children can play with it later.”

“Ready?” Lena asked.

Everett nodded, and together they both hit a single key to execute their programs. There was a change in the hum coming from the machine, a deeper resonance that jogged its way along the floor, up the legs of all present, through their torsos, and settled into their teeth at a tone that threatened to loosen fillings.

“That’s much more unpleasant,” Bibianna said. “Is that a good sign?”

“Let’s not stay and find out,” Lena said as she stood and took several quick steps toward the exit.

The group hurried back through the winding corridors to burst out of the front doors, the sun on their faces and the hope that they’d live to see another sunrise in their hearts.

“Drop the force field,” Bibianna said.

That hope was short-lived.

“I’m sorry we can’t do that.”

Bibiana stepped closer, only the glimmering field protecting the guards from her rather obvious wrath. “That is an order, pawn!”

“The black king just sent new orders. The fields aren’t to be dropped again in case we can’t get them back up in time.”

“Everett, time check.”

“Uh… just over four minutes.”

“That’s more than enough time to drop and raise the field again. Drop it,” Bibianna ordered.

“It’s an order from our king. I’m sorry.” His gaze wandered over to his coworkers, his friends, as he delivered their death sentence. “I’m so sorry.”

“We’re outside the building. Will that be enough to—”

“No.” Lena tapped at her tablet several times before spiking it to the ground. “If the forcefield stops this thing, the volume will be such that we’ll be crushed under the metal particles.”

“Even if we survive their mass, we’ll suffocate,” Everett added.

Bibiana pulled out her phone, pulling up a contact and dialing. There were a few moments before voicemail picked up. “Fuck you, Max Lord.” She returned to her contacts, making another call. When it went to voicemail again, she squeezed her eyes shut and muttered something in Spanish. “Kalia, love, you need to get Max on the phone to his people. We have the artifact mostly disarmed, but we’re trapped behind the forcefield with it, and the black side won’t drop the forcefield. Your brother and Lean tell me… Madre de Dios, Kalia, you need to get us out of here now!” She swallowed hard, said, “I love you,” and hung up.

“We’re not getting out of here, are we?” one of the black pawns inside the forcefield asked.

“Don’t say that. No, there has to be something… Lena? Think of something.”

“Anna, there’s nothing—”

“We could try and override the power circuits by forcing full energy from the dispersers to the laser,” Everett said.

“Even if it stopped the dispersal, it will only explode and kill us all,” Lena said.

“Someone has to try something!”

As Everett stomped back into the building, Lena bit the pad of her thumb. Her eyes shifted left and right before she gasped, and her brows shot up.

“You have an idea. You can save us?”

“I can get us to a non-zero percent chance of death,” Lena said as she rushed back into the gym. “Follow me!”

“Where are we going?” Bibiana asked as she ran alongside Lena, both slowing only enough to corner before surging into a full sprint again.

“We need to get inside a reinforced structure that doesn’t share an air supply with the rest of this structure.” She turned another corner and headed straight to a big silver door, pulling out the locking pin and tugging it open.

“A walk-in freezer?”

“Each panel consists of inner and outer metal skins and a 4” insulation core,” Lena explained as she hurried inside the freezing unit, her breath immediately fogging the air. “The metal finish is somewhere between 26-gauge embossed galvanized steel and 20-gauge smooth galvanized steel The floor panels have R-28 rating or greater, allowing a stationary load of 600 pounds per sq. ft. If I’m correctly estimated the mass of the particles, and I can’t promise I am with all of the unknown variables and—”

Bibianna grabbed Lena by both shoulders, stopping the onslaught of words. “Are you saying that we won’t be crushed to death in here?”

“It’s unlikely. It’s more likely rescue won’t come in time, and we’ll suffocate before we have a chance to freeze to—” Lena ripped her gaze from Bibianna’s as she took in a split-second inventory of the occupants in the room. “Where’s Everett?”

It only took a moment for the other occupants of the room to look about and discover for themselves what Lena knew. Everett hadn’t followed them into the freezer.

She surged toward the exit only to be stopped by a black pawn blocking her escape. “What are you doing?”

“You said we live so long as that door remains closed,” he replied. “It’s staying closed.”

“No! Everett is out there. He’s one of your people. We can’t abandon him.”

“We’re not. He’s making a sacrifice for the rest of us, and he’ll be remembered.”

“Fuck that!” Lena raised her knee, connecting with the man’s groin before she pushed him to the side and rushed to pass the remaining Checkmate members. There was a loud crack as one of them pistol-whipped her, and her skull rebounded off of a shelf before thudding solidly to the freezer floor.

“Lena!”

As black dots rushed to the center of Lena’s vision, a shot echoed through the room. A second body hit the ground, and then Lena’s consciousness faded away.

<><> 

Lena moaned. As consciousness returned, so did feeling. Her head throbbed, but the pain felt distant and unimportant. Her body informed her of an injury, and she informed her body that she didn’t give a crap.

“Lena?” A voice, a woman’s voice, reached through the haze. “Lena, are you awake?” It repeated, an insistent call nagging at her.

“Hmmm? What?” 

Lena’s eyelids fluttered as she pushed her way through the siren’s call that was sleep and struggled to wakefulness. A face came into view, blurry at first but after just a few blinks pulled into focus. Worry etched the woman’s features, but as their gazes locked, Bibianna smiled.

“Thank God. The doctors said that if you didn’t wake up soon—” She sniffled, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears as she grabbed the black plunger and pressed the button, signaling the nurse. “How do you feel?”

“Bibi… Bibianna? What are you doing here?” Lena’s gaze swept the room, white walls and curtains, metal railings on her bed, and beeping machines with leads attached to her torso. “Where am I?”

“You’re in a Checkmate medical facility. You were taken to the closest trauma center in Connecticut, but once they had you stabilize, the black queen had you transferred here.”

“The black queen? Why would the black queen—” Eyes wide, Lena gasped and tried to push herself upright.

“Hey, hey, easy there. You’ve been through a lot. We didn’t know if you would wake up.”

Lena allowed Bibianna’s gently nudge to keep her supine. “Dr. Grace-Colby is the black queen.”

“Yes.”

“One of my professor’s was a Checkmate plant evaluating me for recruitment.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What’s going on?” a nurse asked as she stepped into the room. “Oh, she’s awake.” She grabbed a penlight, checking Lena’s pupils. “Good, you look good. How do you feel?”

“Confused. What the fuck happened to me?”

She glanced over at Bibianna before patting Lena’s arm. “I’m going to get your doctor.”

Lena nodded as the nurse left and allowed herself to look, to truly look at Bibianna for the first time since waking up.

“Did you break your leg?”

“What?” As Lena gestured toward the crutches resting against the table and then the air cast on Bibianna’s leg, she shook her head. “No, I was shot.”

“Someone shot the Argentinian ambassador on American soil?” Lena groaned. “Did they catch whoever it was and throw him into a hole somewhere?”

“It was a member of Checkmate.”

“Jesus Christ.” She shut her eyes and allowed the events of the incident to slowly filter their way back into her mind. “Was there an alien device?”

“When isn’t there?” Bibianna replied.

“True. Did I disarm it?” When there was no response, Lena opened her eyes and met Bibiann’s hesitant gaze. “I remember the device, remember programming and… Everett.”

“Yes.”

“Everett was recruited by Max.”

“Lena—”

“Everett was recruited to take my spot after Kalia intervened.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Then whose was it?”

“Max Lord’s.”

A further argument halted, Lena nodded. “Hmmm, fine, but I want to see him.”

“The black king—”

“I don’t give a flying fuck about Max Lord. I want to see Everett. Is he here? Was he hurt?”

“Lena, there’s something—”

“He was, wasn’t he. Is Kalia with him? I need to go.” She pushed herself upright again only to meet Bibianna’s unrelenting hands. “Let me up.”

“You need to listen to me first. This is important. It’s about Everett.”

Lena nodded, her brows furrowed as Bibianna began her tale. It was a story about teamwork, bravery, brilliance, betrayal, and a loss so deep it was like a knife to the gut, twisted and cruel beyond what even her life had yet to know. By the mid-point, Lena was begging Bibianna to stop talking, and by the end of it, she was weeping inconsolably.

Ambassador Bibianna Ramos – Brazilian representative in the UN


End file.
